Monarch Children's Justice & Advocacy Center is a place where trauma stops and healing begins. Working together, a multidisciplinary team is changing the way the community responds to child victims of sexual abuse. This multidisciplinary approach offers child victims and their families a place where they can access the help they need to heal emotionally and physically from abuse.

This site offers information and resources for parents and professionals who advocate and care for children with special health care needs.
"Children with special health care needs include all children who have, or are at increased risk for, chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional conditions and who also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. It is estimated that 18 million children in the United States have these special health needs"

A federally funded, comprehensive child and family development program that includes preschool, home visits, health and developmental screenings, social service referrals, and parent involvement opportunities.

The United Nations is offering the website, as a tool to relieve hunger. All you do is click on a button and somewhere in the world a hungry person gets a meal to eat at no cost to you. Corporate sponsors pay for the meals. You can use it once a day. Pass the word!

Early intervention in Washington State is a collection of services families may need for their infants or toddlers with disabilities. Early intervention during the first years of a child's life can make a big difference in the future of that child.

The Division of Child Support (DCS) is the state agency that administers state and federal child support laws. If you are a custodial parent, a non-custodial parent, or the custodian of a dependent child, the resource center will help you to understand DCS and the services we provide. DCS provides various services to parents and to custodians which include:

Paternity establishment

Child support order establishment and modification

Child support order enforcement

Payment processing through The Washington State Support Registry (WSSR)

This website is dedicated to women and men who are scared and too afraid to speak out. Domestic violence affects all ethnic,racial, gender,socioeconomic and religious boundaries.
Domestic violence doesn't mean only physical abuse. Abuse takes many forms, such as economic, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse.
You are not alone...

Is where you can download self help forms if you can't afford an attorney and do it yourself. There you can find child support worksheets, parenting plans, protection orders, legal separation papers, divorce forms and much more.

Pronunciation: 'vI-l&n(t)s, 'vI-&-
Function: noun
Date: 14th century,1: exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse (as in effecting illegal entry into a house) b : an instance of violent treatment or procedure,2: injury by or as if by distortion, infringement, or profanation : OUTRAGE3: intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force : vehement feeling or expression : FERVOR; also : an instance of such action or feeling : a clashing or jarring quality : DISCORDANCE4: undue alteration (as of wording or sense in editing a text)

WROC's mission is to effect economic and social justice by educating and empowering low income parents. WROC is made up of individuals and groups whose purpose is to empower people receiving public assistance to make positive changes in the welfare system.

WROC (206) 324-3063 in the Seattle area or (877) 330-3063, (360) 352-9716 in Olympia

Love Shouldn't HurtIn the beginning, I was young . . . he was handsome. He said I was beautiful, smart, worthy of love . . . made me feel that way. And so we were married, walking joyfully together down a church aisle, our union blessed by God.
Then came the angry words . . . the verbal tearing apart. . . . Now I was made to feel ugly, unintelligent, unworthy of any love, God's or man's.
Next came the beatings . . . unrelenting violence . . . unceasing pain. I shouldn't stay, but this is my husband . . . promised forever. He says I deserve it . . . maybe I do . . .
if I could just be good. I feel so alone . . . doesn't God hear me when I cry out silently as I lie in bed each night?
Finally came the release, the realization. It's not me . . . it's him. . . .
I am worthy of love, God's and man's. One spring morning, my heart was filled with hope and with fear now only of starting over on my own. And so again I walked . . . down the hallway of our apartment building . . . never again to be silent . . . never again to live with that kind of violence, to suffer that kind of pain.
"A Battered Wife"

Admit that you Hurt

Often it's hard to admit we're hurting. "I'm O.K.," we stoically tell ourselves. "He can't hurt me," we tell others, and "Big girls and boys don't cry."
Admitting you're hurting is one of the first steps toward healing. Running away from pain is the source of all emotional illness, says M. Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled. To be emotionally healthy, we must embrace the pain of life's hurts.
Part of taking a realistic look at our hurt is looking at the "payoff" we get from holding on to it. Does it allow us to maintain a false "poor me" stance? Is it a protective shield saying, "Don't touch; I'm fragile"? Is it a way of escaping the risks of ever loving again?
A friend once told me, "If I let go of the anger and bitterness that have filled me for so long, I'm afraid there will be nothing left but an empty shell. That anger is all I have to let me know I'm alive."
By M. Elaine Dillhunt, O.S.B.

This World is our Heaven on Earth

In the New Millennium of the Aquarian Age, we are learning to go within to find our savior. We are the power we are looking for. Each one of us is totally linked with the Universe and with Life.
"Anonymous"

Don't hold to anger, hurt or pain. They steal your energy and keep you from love.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Hold to your ethics and principles and do not for a moment consider compromising what you believe to be right. Acting with integrity is the key.

Poem

Marooned

by Michael Crawford

Space, a place to call your own Infinite, untamed and vast. Once I was with two, now alone. Why were they there, so close to the blast?

I am tired but able, to prevent my demise I called back to earth, but no one was home. They missed a step, so very unwise. We were to land on a planet, near a strange, large dome.

This ship just went on, on its own. With just me now, looking out into space. The remainder of my life, maybe short time, now on loan
To my best friend, gone now, we all called Ace.

They now float, out in space, without any weight. We were all such good friends, not showing any fear.
To Ace, so driven, a destination, without fate
To Laura, she tried to be strong, to hold back her tears.

She was the last, held on so long, but let go I did all I could to help her, her injuries too great. She pleaded over and over, “Let me go,” I which I said no
I said, “You must hold on, I’m so sorry for being so late”.

I am still one year away, to a safe place to land. Right now, space is so dark, emotions, don’t know what to do. My ship is well, when I return, why do I ask, will there be a band? Who will I meet next a year, who to tell, I must ask who.

My gauges indicate direction, and my ship current status
I am somewhat relieved, less stress, more at ease.
Oh, how I want to return home, below the stratus.
Where the three of us once planned, sail the open seas.

My ship is large, the largest of them all I have the needed space, in my marooned state
I wait patiently, for someone to answer, my distress call
I can say from my heart, I don’t want them to be late.

Systems will keep me alive, for a few years I am thankful for this, and feel very blessed. The damage could have been worse, bringing forth my greatest fear. With all that happened, I am the only one who survived the test.

I want to hear,“Captain Hanson, are you there?” As time passes, I must diligently listen I know there is those, on earth that care. She is my beautiful wife, her name is Kristen.

Space is vast,filled with many unknowns. Filled with different planets, and bright stars. Space is where I wanted to be, to explore, to roam I always wondered. Will my next home be, on the planet Mars?

I hold next to me, a log for someone to read. What has happened must be known, this log will be discovered. For what has happened, the warnings, others must heed.
Should I not be able to tell the story, this important log must be recovered.

The winds of fire run long and deep. From across the ocean, it cannot be ignored
To make a change, indeed a giant leap. Even to sit still, you cannot become bored.

Leaders wait for hope and change. Their inaction cannot be the cure. Some of them can say, conditions over there are only strange. Change must happen, this is for sure.

Hate must change to love, for your fellow man. A heavy task to all, all that stay in the fight. Some say they can’t, but most know, you can, with a pause, you really can. People can do this by not losing sight.

Love for one another must never stop. It is the thread that holds us together. Like with many seeds, you can grow a large crop. Other seeds will spread in other places in the air, like a feather.

One must ask why people want to fight. You will fight to protect those you love I look out my window, I see a child flying a kite. A white bird flies, it is beautiful, a dove.

Things will change, this is for sure. Everyone know this, it is part of our lives. We see the birth of life, oh so very pure. Some of us wait for that wonderful day to arrive.

The winds of fire will someday subside. Peace will eventually come to a land and its people. Hate, not love will find another place to hide. Peace can be found in many places, even under a steeple.

Someday, all will say, enough is enough. People grow tired of death and destruction. But in the mean time, those in the fight say things remain tough. To begin, a solution must be a reduction.

People are wonderful in their own unique way. Love, trust and aid cannot go unseen
You read and see in the media everyday. It truly is part of our being.

I know there must be victory for one side to win. To save face is important indeed.
We will see brave men and women line up to receive a pin. Within the audience, others will think or say, God speed.